Bay View’s Blind Lyricist: The Songs of J. Will Callahan

Noted historian Mary Jane Doerr will explore the life and career of blind Tin Pan Alley lyricist J. Will Callahan, who built a cottage on Forest Avenue in Bay View in 1909. His song “Smiles,” written in 1917, sold 5 million copies of sheet music during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic and World War I. He published 300 songs during his time in Bay View.

Mary Jane Doerr is author of the book The Songs of J. Will Callahan, 2022 winner of Michigan State History Award and Honorable Mention in the 2023 New York Book Festival.  Her book Bay View, An American Idea, won the 2010 Michigan State History Award. She worked as a freelance writer for the Petoskey News Review from 1979 until recently, has written for some 30 publications throughout Michigan and the United States.  For the Hemingway Project, she published an essay about the renowned author’s time in Petoskey and Bay View. Wikipedia has featured her biography of the career of Bay View’s longtime violinist Hugo Gottesmann.